Bear claws 19-year-old's face and chest through window of Crestline home

Darah Wood was approaching her 19-year-old son's room early Monday when he stormed out with blood on his face.

A nosebleed, she thought. But when she peeked into his room, she saw a large black bear trying to get in through a window.

"The bear had reached in and clawed him," she said in a phone interview. "There were a few surface-level scratches on his stomach and chest, but he had really gotten his face."

She said she scared the bear away by screaming and banging a pot with a wooden spoon.

Paramedics arrived and took her son, Kevin, who is autistic, to Loma Linda University Medical Center - a 39-minute drive from from their home in Crestline, a mountain community in San Bernardino County.

Wood said the bear's claws had opened her son's upper-right lip and nostril, requiring stitches. She said his mouth was swollen but that he was out of the hospital and recovering Wednesday.

Although bear attacks are rare, the incident has rattled some residents in the small mountain community and sparked a probe by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

As part of their investigation, wildlife officers took a collection of potential DNA evidence from Kevin Wood and the residence and submitted the samples to a lab, the agency said in a written statement.

"The DNA results have come back from the lab, and CDFW wildlife officers will now be attempting to capture the offending bear," the agency said.

Darah Wood's mother, Deena, said things could have been worse. She said she and her family have lived at the Crestline home since the late 1970s and have never experienced a bear attack.

The Woods said bears are known to wander into people's backyards, often drawn by gardens and ponds, but that they typically flee at the sight of humans.

"But this guy is a little different," Deena Wood said.

She believes the bear that attacked her grandson may be the same she saw in a pond near their home less than a week ago. She said that bear wasn't easily scared.

"He just got out and lumbered away real slowly," she said. "So he's a little brazen, I would say."

Wildlife experts say human-bear conflicts are the result of people moving deeper into the wildlands, and that bears that wander into neighborhoods are often harmless and easy to frighten.

But some bears, experts note, adjust to human routines such as which days trashcans are put out so they can find food. Others are unafraid and can kill livestock, damage property and pose a public safety threat.

The Woods said they don't wish harm on the bear but they hope that wildlife officers will be able to track it down so that it doesn't hurt anyone else.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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